Samsung Hires Hint at New Chip Focus

Samsung Electronics is a major maker of processors that power cellphones and other mobile devices. But some observers think the Korean giant’s recent hiring point to another possibility–chips for server systems.

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Samsung has been staffing up an R&D center in Austin, Texas, recruiting engineers from U.S. companies that include Advanced Micro Devices.

The Korean company has been staffing up a research and development center in Austin, Texas, recruiting engineers from U.S. companies that include some prominent people from Advanced Micro Devices. In the latest development, Samsung has hired Patrick Patla, a former AMD vice president who served until Friday as general manager of the business that includes server chips.

Profiles on LinkedIn show recruits in the past year that include Jim Mergard, a 16-year AMD veteran who was a vice president and chief engineer, and Brad Burgess, who was chief architect of a low-power AMD processor design known as Bobcat. The Samsung center is headed by Keith Hawkins, another AMD veteran who also worked at server maker Sun Microsystems.

Some of the new Samsung engineers have expertise in multi-function products known as systems on a chip, or SoCs, which are widely used in mobile devices to save on space and power. But the same approach can be used in servers to save on power, with some companies also planning to make SoCs for servers using processor designs from ARM Holdings that Samsung any many others use in cellphones.

One company working on such products is Calxeda, an Austin start-up that is collaborating with Hewlett-Packard and interprets Samsung’s hiring as a sign it will follow suit.

“They are certainly adding the same skill set,” says Karl Freund, Calxeda’s vice president of marketing. “They are likely gearing up to get into the server space.”

A spokesman for Samsung in South Korea confirmed that Patla is now a vice president at the company. He would not comment on the possibility of making server chips.

There is no dispute that Samsung, which is best known for memory chips, is beefing up efforts to be a bigger player in microprocessors and other products in the broad category known as logic chips. Samsung, besides designing and making its own mobile processors, manufactures chips designed by Apple for devices that include the iPhone and iPad.

It’s a strategy that has put Samsung into competition with other ARM users such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Freescale Semiconductor and Marvell Technology Group. A move into server chips, in particular, would intensify competition with Intel, the microprocessor leader that has long been No. 1 in overall semiconductor revenue, with Samsung perennial No. 2.

Patrick Moorhead, a former AMD executive who is now president and principal analyst Moor Insights & Strategy, says the ARM-based SoC market is crowded. But Samsung would have advantages in controlling its own manufacturing, where other companies use production services called foundries.

But Samsung would be a newcomer in server chips, Moorhead notes, and have to build credibility with computer makers and enterprise customers. “They have no experience on the server side of the house, unlike Intel and AMD, and will need to prove themselves worthy,” he says.